KORRIBAN: SITH ACADEMY
Two months after Terrow had escaped, Briza wandered about in her chamber. She was getting ready for the tournament, she had to admit that life was much easier now that she no longer had to protect her brother. Despite that she had been training harder than ever before, it still felt like she had much more time on her hand.
Now she just wondered if this part of their master plan would work out, but it was a risk worth taking, she kept telling herself.
She dressed herself in her light and flexible bodyarmor. She made a quick inspection of her training warblade, she turned it on and made a few simple swings with it, before turning it off again and heading out.
Beyond the arena, she and fifteen other warriors now sat on the bench, waiting their turn to enter and fight for their future place in the sith hierarchic.
As she sat down, Briza spotted Grimt who was seated a little away from her. He too looked back at her with a look of greedy expectation, impatiently awaiting the moment where she held up her end of the bargain.
Briza kinda hoped that he would lose before she met him in battle, but she doubted many of the others would be much match for him and his strong dark powers.
One after another, they entered the arena. After the fight one came out returning to his seat, whereas the other, injured and broken, were sent directly back to their chambers, like the rest of the fallen, to await orders of deployment in the imperial army.
After a half an hour, she was called in, to fight a blond human female who was a head shorter than her. Briza could sense her opponent was engulfed in the dark side. As soon as the order was giving the human attacked, in an explosion of chaotic movement. Briza quickly had to block a flurry of strikes, but aside from this display of blazing hatred, she herself held every other advantage. She was taller; thereby having a longer reach, she was stronger, faster, and had a much stronger connection to the force.
With a swift and precise low swing of her blade, she hit the humans right hand thereby causing the opponent's training saber to drop and even before it hit the ground, Briza reached out with the force and blade flew into her free hand.
The human was livid with rage, and with no weapon on her. She summed her power and with both hands unleashed crackling purple force lightning at Briza, who just blocked it with the two warblades, while approaching her in a steady pace.
Briza sighed as her opponent ceased using darkside lightning and uttered in dismissive tone "This is getting boring. I'm going to end this now" she could feel her opponent's fear growing. She fed on her fear, savouring it for a moment, before throwing the other saber aside. She raised her left hand and unleashed her own, noticeably stronger, blue force lightning.
The female human tried to jump away, but too late. She was shocked by the lighting, collapsing and losing consciousness almost immediately, only sporadic spasms left from the jolt.
Briza was declared the winner and walked back to her seat to wait for her next battle, all the while the little human got carried to the infirmary.
An hour past and she had fought two other opponents, both too weak to be any challenge. One she smacked into the sealing over the arena, the other fell to her blade after only two strikes on her part. She had noticed that Grimt also had been winning his battles and after the last fight, only six of them remained. Now both she and Grimt was sent to the arena. Briza rose up and prepared for the battle she had to lose, if she wanted her brother to remain in the imaginated grave they had dug for him.
As they stood out in the arena preparing to fight each other. Briza considered the possibility of accidentally killing him during the fight. It would be believed that she had just been furious over her brother's death, but she knew that Grimt would have been smart enough to have some sort of backup plan. She shrugged the thought out of her head, as she light up her war blade and held it in a high guard, ready to meet his blade head on.
Grimt was first to move, attacking with a series chaotic strikes, typical that of a Joyo user, but Briza deflected it all with ease, as she was faster and physically the stronger of the two. She countered with her own chaotic moveset, but as planned, Briza did not put any significant amount of energy or strength behind any of her strikes and cleaves, which gave Grimt the time to change into the Djem-so style of fighting. He blocked her attacks and with all his strength, countered with a powerful overhead cleave.
Briza could easily have sidestepped and slammed or kicked his blade out of his hand, but instead she blocked it clumsily, giving him a clear signal that she was playing along. She was making it look like the death of her brother somehow had drained her and weakened her resolve, but she wasn't going to let him win so easily. She quickly stepped backwards to give her enough distance to meet him anew, their blades clashing with a sound of energized static.
Grimt made an overhead slash for the red zabrak's head, but it was a feint, to lure her hands up high.
Briza knew what he was doing, but decided it was time to end it. She followed the faint, which made her vulnerable to strikes from the belt and below.
Grimt saw that she was falling for his maneuver, intentional or not, and swiftly slashed much lower than expected from a typical head slash.
Briza reacted to the change by trying to block the attack, changing the blade positioned ninety degrees, but too slow for it to matter, getting hit on the wrist. While a training saber didn't kill, it did make painful shock waves, which made her entire hand and part of her arm numb from pain.
Seeing the sudden advantage, Grimt quickly force pushed her saber out Briza's hand, sending the blade flying away, clattering to the arena floor.
Briza playing the amature, used her left hand to call the blade back, instead of getting out of danger first, leaving her wide open. She felt an extremely painful jolt in her stomach, which made her involuntarily bend over in pain.
Grimt danced around the now helpless zabrak, first hit her left arm, then the the right leg, finishing with a stab in the back, sending burning pain through her spine. She fell to the sandstone floor landing on her stomach, the crowd gasped as she stopped moving and lay still.
Grimt crouched down to whispered in her ear "I hope your brother was worth it.." but Briza was too weak to reply... Or so it seemed.
A moment later she was carried out of the stadium towards the infirmary by medical droids to recover.
Briza opened her eyes again fifteen minutes later, finding herself laying on a bench in the infirmary, the droids had given her a few kolto injection, which made her feel a bit lightheaded. Most of the pain from earlier was gone and she felt fresh enough to leave the infirmary. She decided to watch what was left of the tournament from the spectators' tribune. She decided against taking a seat, instead she just stood behind a stone pillar. Looking down over the arena, where her latest opponent was battling... what could best be described as a sith pureblood titan, named Vendictous.
To her knowledge, this gigantic beast had one of the worst reputations in all of the academy's history. He was extremely aggressive, with no understanding of the word mercy. He had caused the death of several acolytes over the years, leaving a considerable amount of collateral damage to everything from equipment, to the structure of buildings. The juggernaut was known for his insane physically strength and for having enough force power to make him dangerous even from afar.
She watched as Grimt was being choked by a powerful force grip around his throat, while simultaneously being pressed up in midair, just to mash him into the ground, accompanied by the sounds of breaking bones, blood splattering all over the arena floor. If not for one of the sith lords ordering the monster to stop thrashing the screaming pitiful worm, he would have ripped, the already close to dying, Grimt to pieces.
Vendictous roared victoriously, while the sith lords observing from the other end of the tribune praised his fighting prowess and argued amongst themselves, who would take him for apprentice.
Briza was very uncertain if she could have defeated him. He was much taller and much heavier than her. She would only have had speed as her ally and maybe a few more force tricks in her arsenal, but she couldn't even be certain of that. She had seen enough and retired to her quarters.
Later that day, Briza received the message to come to one of the instructor's office at once and as expected, she was greeted with disgust. "I'm extremely disappointed in you acolyte, the death of your brother have made you weak. You should have use your hatred of him to fuel your power, instead you failed like a helpless little gizka" she spat at Briza in distaste and added in the same tone "I doubt any of the dark lords will want you now, instead you will be sent to the frontline to serve in the imperial military as a simple sith warrior. You are dismissed"
Briza bowed and left without showing any emotions, but inside she was smiling. The plan had worked well so far, Terrow was out of harm's way and with regards to the sith lords... they had planned ahead.
Later that night, when her injury was no longer an issue, Briza had without anyone noticing, sneaked upstairs to one of the dark lords private chambers, namely the chambers of the powerful Darth Veness. Even from the outside Briza could feel a dark force presence so powerful that she could almost taste it.
Stood right outside, she took a deep breath, gathering courage to what was needed, to prove her worth... and the only way, was in person. She pressed the buzzer, after no response was given, she used the force to rip the metal door open, without damaging it too much in the process.
The chamber was dimly lit and the walls were covered in expensive decorative hangings. A huge desk was placed in the center of the room. It was made from some sort of dark wood unknown to her. On top of the desk several holoprojectors were showing documents written in hieroglyphs she couldn't decipher.
The dark lord seated at her work desk, was a tall, thin, marrone skinned pureblood sith, with a narrow face visibly consumed by the dark side. She looked up at the intruder suddenly coming into view. She was more than a little surprised to find this zabrak on her doorstep "If it isn't the great failure of today" Veness laughed sinisterly as she took a better look at the acolyte "you got some nerve shoving up on my doorstep, uninvited!" her eyes borrowed into Briza's "speak or I will strike you down where you stand"
Briza mentally prepared herself, then answered with as much confident as she could muster "My lord, I want to show you my true power"
Darth Veness laughed even louder "So you are telling me that you have been holding back all this time?" Had the acolyte gone mad from failure? To her, it definitely seemed so.
"Exactly" Briza replied with a voice as cool as she could make it.
"It is so long ago, that I have had the pleasure to punish weaklings, like yourself" Veness grinned with her wicked red eyes gleaming in anticipation. She rose, standing in her full height, pulling and turned on her crimson red lightsaber in one fluid motion, whereafter without any warning she launched herself at Briza with blinding speed.
But Briza had anticipated it, turned on her yellow training-saber and entered into a ready Djem-so battle stand. She parried the incoming strike an instant before her right arm would have been cut off "Now or never" Briza thought. She quickly focused her anger and summed the dark side to her aid her. With raw power she pushed Veness blade back and moved on the offensive, utilizing her superior strength, speed and precision.
Veness was baffled, her strike that should have left the bothersome zabrak crippled and defenseless, had been blocked with ease! And now.. her defenses was being hammered, blow after blow she praied the onslaught, with no indication of an opening to go back on the offensive.
Concerned that she was being pushed into a corner, Veness used the force to hurl Briza up against the wall with a loud slam, but that only momentarily stopped Briza as she landed on her feet. Ignoring the pain, she renewed her attack with the more chaotic and fast paced fencing style of Joyo.
For a time their blades were moving so fast they would be difficult to see without the help of the force. Veness was so impressed by the stamina of this young zabrak, that she decided to test her endurance and pain-tolerance. She force pushed Briza away to get some distance and followed it up by spreading her fingers and firing a series of force lightning at the acolyte before she had a chance to get on her feet.
Briza had expected force lightning at some point in their duel, and caught the lightning on her blade, but the training blade was ill equipped to absorbthe kind of dark force energy that a sith lord could unleash. She could feel the hilt's heat rise and threw it away before it exploded in her hands. It landed in between Veness personal art objects, where the saber overheated and went up in flames.
Briza was left completely defenseless, as the Darth renewed her attack. Briza tried to block it with her hands, but to no avail. The dark lightning burned into her skin and she collapsed on to the the stone floor in agony. She wanted to scream, but this was the last place to show weakness and she denied herself that right.
Seeing her opponent had finally fallen to her lightning, Veness returned to the offencive, her blade reignited.
With the lighting extinguished, Briza thought of force pushing Veness away before she was cut in half, but thought better of it when she caught a glimpse of another lightsaber hanging on the wall surrounded by various other decorations. She channel what power she had left and instantly reached for it.
Veness only just noticed her other lightsaber, as it hurtled past her head, before it flew into Briza's hand. The two scarlet blades colieded in a flashing light of sparkles, their faces only centimeters from each other "Have I proven myself yet?" Briza inquired, sounding more staggered than she would have liked.
Their blades locked, Veness expression turned from one of malice into a smile "You have" she disengaged and turned off her lightsaber, gesturing for Briza to do the same.
Briza obeyed and turned the lightsaber off as well "Believe me my lord... I didn't fail in the contest out of weakness or the loss of my brother" she told as matter of fact, still a bit out of breath after their duel.
"Then why did you fail?" Veness demanded to know.
"Because... I want you as my master" Briza revealed, with as much emphasis in her voice as she could muster.
Darth Veness grinned, with a low deep chuckle "You certainly know how to choose your allies"
Briza wanted to produce a smile of her own, but kept it at bay.
In actuality, it was Terrow who had picked Darth Veness as the safest Sith lord, which meant least likely to kill Briza when she didn't need her any longer.
"Bow and swear loyalty to me" Veness demanded as proof of the zabraks words.
Briza obeyed instantly and kneeled before the dark lord "I surrender myself to your teaching... and to your will"
Veness smiled widely in satisfaction, as she looked down at her new pupil "Rise" Veness commanded, awaiting Briza to heed her bidding "The lightsaber you have in your hand, is the weapon of my first rival that I killed. You can have it now"
"Thank you... My master" Briza uttered, honored by receiving such a gift she bowed her head and clipped the saber to her belt.
"Go back to your chamber, and await my orders" Veness instructed with a satisfactory smile. "Soon, we will leave for Dromund Kaas"
"As you command, master" Briza replied with eagerness in her voice. She bowed slightly again before leaving.
As she walked the academy's halls, she proudly displayed her new rank, the lightsaber in her belt. It made a number of the students stand aside for her and the few who remembered her look on in awe and confusion, as to how the same acolyte, who hours earlier got thoroughly beaten, now has a real lightsaber.
Briza could only smile with glee, as she sat in silence in her chamber, their plan had worked perfectly. Terrow was no longer in danger and she was now an apprentice of a great sith lord, despite being utterly beaten this very eventful day. She decide to pack most of her stuff at once in case she was ordered to hurry. She later found it to be a complete waste of time, when a moment later, a servant droid entered with the sole purpose of packing her stuff, for her.
The droid carried her luggage and led the way to Veness' private yacht, a beautiful ship with a sleek black slender haul, Briza guessed it was about as large as a Fury class interceptor. She spotted her new master talking to one of the academy's instructors. Veness turned her head when she sensed her apprentice approaching "Ahh... their you are child, I hope you ready to depart your former home"
"I am my master" Briza politely replied and walked up next to her new master.
To say that the human instructor was confused, was an understatement "You picked today's failure! we still have better candidates to do your bedding my lord, I'll sent for them all at once"
Veness laughed as a reply, "You don't know what this failure can do" her face turned into an evil grin "I have unlocked her furry. With little training, she would easily be capable of tearing you apart" with that she turned her attention to her new pupil "Come child, I want to get home as quickly as possible" they left the speechless instructor and walked up the ramp.
Briza turned her head toward the instructor sending him a look that said everything and ascended up the ramp.
The human just nodded in slow motion, as the ramp closed behind them. He watched the ship starting it's engines and as the ship took to the sky, disappeared beyond his field of vision.